Flags Of Our Fathers- review
September 27th 2008 04:54
Clint Eastwood crafts intelligent, multi-layered, thoughtful movies which defy genre. ‘Mystic River’ transcended the status of a mere crime thriller. ‘Million Dollar Baby’ was so much more deep than ‘just’ another boxing movie. ‘Unforgiven’ dissected the myth of the Western, and presented the grim reality of the situation.
Eastwood rose to fame in the late sixties, making his name as a star of western, cop, and war pictures. Many of these, such as ‘Kelly’s Heroes’ or ‘Where Eagles Dare’ were boys-own adventure fare, and did not quite take WW2 seriously (interesting, as they were made only two decades after the fact, a time when the war was still fresh in people’s minds). He has matured as both an actor and a film-maker, as ‘Flags Of Our Fathers’ is a much more serious, uncompromising character study; and definitely does not present war as a laughing matter.
‘Flags Of Our Fathers’ was a story about myth versus reality. The bonds between a group of young men thrust into a hideous situation. Although the film was about patriotism and propaganda, (the government utilising the famous flag-raising photo on Mount Suribachi to buy war bonds from the oblivious public back on the home front) it showed the reality behind what happened on Iwo Jima in 1944. I do not think the movie glorified war at all. It was made with an air of elegance and class, and avoided war movie clichés. Ultimately, this is a story about the characters, and the impact the war had on not only them, but their loved ones back at home.
There was a line at the beginning of the film, which I will paraphrase as ‘People do not understand war if they have not been through it’. This is very true. Particularly today’s disaffected youths, the desensitised video-game playing generation. I cannot imagine the horror felt by the young men my own age back there on that desolate, barren island, spilling their blood for some greedy politician’s agenda. The battle scenes take on a desperate, bloody intensity, perhaps aided by the lack of music score during them. There is an overwhelming sense of fear and dread created during the flashback sequences.
The period detail is very authentic (the producers went to the trouble of finding actual newspaper headlines from 1944, for instance), and the emotional truth of the horror these people feel is portrayed very well indeed by the cast. Eastwood cleverly avoids casting big-name Hollywood stars, so as to not overshadow the importance of the story he is telling. Perhaps the best known actor in the film is Ryan Phillippe. The only criticism is that the Japanese soldiers are not particularly shown in a flattering light, and are not portrayed as any more than ‘unseen enemies’. But this can be forgiven, as the second and accompanying movie to ‘Flags’, called ‘Letters From Iwo Jima’ shows the Japanese perspective of the story. Watch this space, I shall review the latter movie next.
I really thought this an interesting and well-crafted movie. Eastwood has delivered another striking and memorable cinematic artefact.
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